Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/169

Rh Lo Tse-nan now led three ying of his braves to Changsha, and they formed the nucleus of Tsêng's new army, which is henceforth known in Chinese history as the Siang Chun, or Hunan Army. Tsêng drew up an elaborate set of regulations for their observance, strict rules indeed, since Tsêng was thoroughly alive to the necessity of careful discipline in his armies, lest they become as useless as those of the regular establishment. Kiang Chung-yuan's T'su Yung were more than ever a source of inspiration to him, for at this precise time a band of ten thousand rebels under the leadership of a certain Chow Kuo-yu raised their standard in Liuyang, but were utterly defeated by Kiang in a single battle.

Opportunity soon came to try the mettle of Tsêng's new recruits. Word reached Changsha on March 1 that rebels were collecting in Leiyang and Changning, and threatening Kiaho as well. Eight hundred recruits of both the T'su and Siang armies were sent against them, who, at Hengshan-hsien, inflicted defeat on them easily.

Opposition was to be expected from the regular military officials to this new venture, and civil officials who had to help bear the expense of its maintenance could scarcely give more than lukewarm support. But the value of such an army was so apparent at Peking that the viceroy and governor both received mandates to further this new enterprise by establishing recruiting stations and securing funds for maintenance, this mandate reaching Changsha on March 12.

But it was from another direction that Tsêng's most serious problem arose. In the wake of the Taiping rebels bandits were rising here and there, and the people of the country districts looked with hostile eyes on the